I hate awards. Oh sure, when I was young and naive I
used to wait with baited breath as the envelope was opened and the winner
was announced. But ever since award shows started giving awards to other
award shows, I knew it was all a load of hokum. (Truth be known it was
when Babe lost the Oscar for best picture)

However, since being nominated for Squamish citizen
of the year I may have to revisit that opinion. Allow me to explain. Squamish's
finest are burning bright for this,the 2000 business person as well as
citizen of the year awards. On the business side there's Edie of the Mini
Flea (go Edie!) Orest of the pair tree, Natalie of 99 north (atta' girl!)
and David&Dan of Bycast media. Then on the citizen of the year side
there's Raj, Ted Prior, Bob Smith, Ron Sander and the Test of Metal Organizing
Committee and the vollies! (The vollies is where I'd fit in)

I was first made aware of the illustrious list one foggy
morning when my alarm went off. The revered John French was whispering
sweet nothings during an early morning news cast as the names were announced.
Even in the morning sunshine the first thought that passed through my
brain was the fact that over 90 some odd percent (keeping in mind there
were over 250 T.O.M. vollies) of the candidates are actively fighting
against the woodchip location. But even more interesting was that moments
later Cliff Miller phoned me with crazy good news. Coors Light and Mountain
Dew, two beverages I find hard to swallow are teaming up with an event
I love, The Test of Metal. Or as it's to be know now as:

"The Squamish Mountain Bike festival presented by
Coors Light and Mountain Dew, Featuring the Inter-Galactic Chariot Race
presented by Greg Gardner Gm : Featuring the Test of Metal presented by
IGA Plus Squamish. But wait there's more, you also get. The North
American Trials Championship Series presented by Canadian Northern Shield
Insurance Company". Phew. So what does that mean besides a
ridiculously expensive letterhead? Well it means that Coors Light and
Mountain Dew get exposure to their target market (active adults) and Cliff
gets his grubby mitts on their stupidly giant publicity machine. It's
a first year agreement so there's bound to be glitches here and there,
but it's refreshing to know someone in the community is getting big players
to look at Squamish as an outdoor recreation capital. On the money side
it's important to note that The Test of Metal's mandate still hasn't changed.
They're still a not-for-profit organization. There is a good chance that
for the first year they might even loose money, but for a change, organizers
are looking at the big picture.

With The Coors/MtDew promotion machine behind us, just
think of how many people will come to Squamish spending buckets of cash
for 3 straight days. Plus, now that Whistler has shown themselves incapable
of hosting the Olympics by pissing away their chance to host the Triple
Mountain Bike World Cup, the T.O.M. is now the premier Mountain bike event
in the corridor! Squamish - it's a beautiful thing.